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Summary of the impact

Work by University of Stirling staff has contributed directly to improved
wildlife resource management in the Central African region. Innovative
research into the status and trends of key wildlife populations,
ecological impacts, resource harvests and trade, drivers of resource use
and assessing management success have contributed directly to new thinking
on the issue, revisions of laws and policy and to success in attracting
foreign aid for management issues. Stirling staff members now advise the
Government of Gabon on resource management policies, National Park
management and biodiversity issues.

Underpinning research

The Stirling African Forest Ecology group led by Abernethy has carried
out multidisciplinary research on bushmeat harvests and trade in Central
Africa for over a decade. The research work, planned as a 10-15 year
conservation science initiative (2000-2015); began with an original
research phase, followed by assessment of the governance framework and
capacity building needs, and led ultimately to official policy review and
governance reform in both the region and donor countries, such as UK and
US. In 2000 despite considerable global research documenting the direct
effects of hunting on wildlife, there was little consensus on the drivers
of hunting (economic, cultural or nutritional need), the extent of impacts
on wildlife, or the sustainability of current practices, particularly in
Central Africa. Francophone wildlife managers had little access to
research questions or findings, international research results were not
being translated into feasible long-term management options, and managers
were left with few practical tools with which to understand or mitigate
the snowballing impacts of hunting and trade. Dramatic wildlife declines
were already destabilizing fragile rural food security and appropriate
research was crucial to providing the right solutions. This research group
has established a high quality scientific reputation in the region and has
systematically addressed the research required for improved management of
hunting through:

a) innovative analyses of household dietary consumption, designed to
elucidate the roles of wealth, nutrition and culture on resource use; b)
comparative analyses of hunter offtakes and use of bushmeat in areas with
differing wildlife depletion and market opportunity; c) continuous
nationwide market trade monitoring over 6 years; and d) participation in
various wildlife density surveys with numerous partners. Research was
carried out nationwide in Gabon and produced a unique database,
non-existent in any other country of the region, but applicable
region-wide. The research contributed to literature evidencing
considerable declines in flagship wildlife in the Congo Basin (i.e. Walsh
et al, 2003) and the existence of an unregulated hunt and burgeoning
commercial chain (i.e. Milner Gulland et al., 2003). A report commissioned
by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) on `the bushmeat crisis'
(Nasi et al., 2008) was co-authored by University of Stirling staff.

Very recent research report results from the past two decades to: a)
measure success in ecosystem management (Laurance et al, 2013; DOI:
10.1038/nature11318); b) evaluate proactive hunting management options and
changes in drivers and context (Coad et al, 2013; DOI:10.1111/cobi.12012);
and c) assess significance of hunting in wildlife population declines
(Maisels et al., 2013; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0059469). The milestone,
peer-reviewed papers indicated above have been cited over 950 times to
date in the scientific literature and are widely used in policy documents,
technical reports and public communication on the subject.

• Darwin Initiative Fellowship 162/12/002. Support for further tertiary
Education for Anne-Marie Ndong Obiang' Final report and review available
from Darwin Initiative. £29,000,1 yr, 2009.

• Darwin Initiative UK government grant 162/12/002 `Capacity building for
Monitoring and Managing the Bushmeat trade in Gabon' £163,000, 2003-2006.

Other grants awarded with AFEG staff as a PI/co-PI:

• US Fish and Wildlife Service grant GACF 0274 `An integrated system for
surveillance and anti-poaching effort in Gabon (SBES staff PI K. Abernethy
partnering with WCS Gabon) Final report available from USFWS-GACF.
US$23,000 1yr, 2008.

• US Fish and Wildlife Service grant, GACF 0315 Creating
Cross-Institutional Links for Law Enforcement in Gabon. Final report
available from USFWS-GACF. US$ 36,000, 1 yr, 2007. These were the first
submissions to USFWS to support hunting management in the country. USFWS
have continued to support anti-poaching efforts in Gabon, along the lines
of these two grants' recommendations, for the past 5 years

Details of the impact

The research of the African Ecology Group has led to a growing
recognition in governments and donor bodies of the imperative need to
manage hunting in Central Africa, to protect the rural livelihoods,
species and ecosystem function of the second largest rainforest on the
planet. It also provides strategies for best practices in sustainable
hunting management and practical tools for governments and managers to
assess success. To ensure true impacts from the original research, the
group secured funding for capacity-building within Gabon. The group
received support via the UK Darwin Initiative for this section of work
(2003-2009) and matched funds from the US and Gabonese governments. The
wider Stirling research group now includes researchers in Gabon and UK,
ensuring that research is delivered directly to policy makers and is
understood by staff within management groups. The group has been able to
use research results to argue successfully for: the creation in 2009 of an
intergovernment committee on hunting reform; new protected species lists,
using data from hunting and trade were issued in 2010; and the promotion
of the Wildlife Department to a higher status within government in 2011.
Anne Marie Ndong Obiang, whose research was supported by Stirling (Darwin
Initiative award 162/12/002), was the nominated focal point for Gabon at
CITES, responsible for hunting issues. She is now senior staff in Gabon's
National Park service, providing legacy from this educational mentoring.
Stirling has signed MOU agreements with the national research authority
(CENAREST, 2009) and National Parks Agency (ANPN, 2011) in Gabon to
provide research advice and ensure excellence in scientific approach to
this subject. Research results are regularly provided to other
stakeholders as French language technical reports and advisory services.

Wider societal impacts from the research began in 2008 as a direct result
of a national workshop on legislation for governance of the bushmeat
trade, led by the group at Stirling. As a result of this workshop the
cross-ministerial committee for the National Strategy for Sustainable
Bushmeat Management requested the Stirling group to report on the state of
the industry, including recommendations for legal revision and guidelines
for sustainable food security and wildlife conservation, especially of
globally threatened species for which Gabon may determine the survival of
the species. Abernethy was also invited to: 1. Contribute to the
assessment of UK government policy on the issue, which led to the creation
of the Congo Basin Forest Fund by Gordon Brown in 2008 (Brown, Fa &
Gordon, 2008; see section 5d); 2. Join the UK Bushmeat working group,
allowing data from Gabon to be taken into account in UK policy; 3. Join
the regional TRAFFIC hunting working group, contributing up to date
knowledge on animal meat trade to TRAFFIC programs and contributing `live'
data to a public access forum (SYstème de suivi de la filière Viande de
Brousse en Afrique Centrale); 4. Evaluate WWF hunting policy
projects in Cameroon and DRC, enabling the group's expertise to support of
one of the largest NGO's in the region; and 5. Advise FAO on regional
resource management projects (i.e. GEF Project/ GCP/ RAF/441/GER),
ensuring that research underpins UN agency practice on the ground.
University of Stirling staff participated in the CBD Secretariat
evaluation of the bushmeat harvest impacts, ensuring that policies are
evidence-based, and that consequences of policies on wildlife are
understood. Research carried out at the University's field site in Gabon
supported independent direct monitoring of wildlife to define the status
of unhunted populations and create baselines for comparison with hunted
populations. This greatly improved the evaluation of sustainability in
hunted populations. The wide consultation of research staff on all aspects
of the bushmeat industry ensures reach and influence from the research
into civil society.

In 2010, the synthesis and strategy document for bushmeat management in
Gabon, co-authored by University of Stirling and Gabon's Wildlife
Department, was adopted by the Ministry of Water and Forests (Abernethy
& Obiang Ndong, 2010). Today, Abernethy is a current member of Gabon's
National Committee for Non-Timber Forest Product management, run by the
Prime Minister's office; committee member for the National Strategy on
Bushmeat management (Wildlife Department); expert advisor on environment
to the First Lady of Gabon and a member of the UK Bushmeat working group.
Several of the group (Tutin, Abernethy, White and Maisels) are members of
the IUCN Species Survival Commission. This leadership in developing and
modernising policy represents an opportunity to preserve wildlife
populations of key species of global significance. Research by group
members and others shows that Gabon is home to the majority of remaining
forest elephants, leatherback turtles, humpback whales, mandrills, lowland
gorillas and common chimps, as well as harbouring other endemic primate
species. Gabon has international recognition as a leader in Africa for
conservation planning and environmental performance
(http://www.epi.yale.edu/epi2012/rankings),
and it is likely that initiatives that are successful in Gabon will be
adopted in other countries, as was the case in the gazetting of National
Parks in 2002, which led to declarations of new protected areas in
Cameroon and Congo. In line with recommendations for sustainable
governance of resources, Gabon was the first country in the world to
ratify the CBD `Protocol of Nagoya' in 2011, for better governance of
biological resources and associated traditional knowledge. Abernethy
currently advises Gabon's Department of Environment on pilot work to
ensure excellence in the governance framework being put in place.

Sources to corroborate the impact

a. Satisfaction measures:Abernethy's role in
conservation was endorsed by invitation to sit on the Indianapolis Prize
jury (2012), which also awards the $250,000 Lilly Medal for conservation.
Members of the research group in Gabon; Lee White awarded a CBE
for services to conservation in Africa (2010); Fiona Maisels
elected to the Society for Biology (2013).

Nasi, R. et al. 2008. Conservation and use of wildlife-based
resources: the bushmeat crisis. Secretariat of the Convention on
Biological Diversity, Montreal, and Center for International Forestry
Research (CIFOR), Bogor. Technical Series no.33, 50 pages. This
report lays out the CBD assessment of the impacts of hunting on
biodiversity and guidelines for member countries governance efforts.

CBD Bushmeat Liason Group, 2011. Livelihood Alternatives to the
Unsustainable use of Bushmeat. Secretariat of the Convention on
Biodiversity, Montreal. Technical series 60. 46pages. Cites 5
research papers from the group, particularly using research evidence
for the importance of economic context.

3 papers by the group are listed on the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force
`key documents'www.bushmeat.org.

Letter of Support from: 1) the Gabonese National Parks Agency; 2)
TRAFFIC: the wildlife trade monitoring network; 3) UK Bushmeat Working
Group; 4) US Fish & Wildlife Service (submitted with other REF
documents).

Ministry of Water and Forests, Gabon. Lettre 235,07/MEFEPPN/CAB/CCC. 4
April 2007 to the Cabinet. The Application of the law relative to the
Bushmeat Industry'. Demonstrates uptake by the Government of Gabon
of the recommendations of the Darwin Project, including species
protection, cross-ministerial collaboration and trade regulation.
Committe created 2008.

Brown D, Fa J E & L Gordon (2008) `Wild Meat in the Policy
Process: A Study of the Potential for Inter-Departmental Collaboration
in HMG, United Kingdom', Durrell Conservation Monographs No. 2,
Jersey. This report provides guidelines for UK funding for hunting
management in the region, for example via the Congo Basin Forest Fund.
Early Stirling research is used to show the importance of economic
context.

WWF Central Africa Regional Program Office. Consultancy 9F0739013 to Abernethy.
Assistance in the developing of tools and methodology for wildlife
hunting survey and supervision of study team leaders. Final report and
review available from WWF-CARPO. The invited consultancy
demonstrates international recognition of the groups' expertise and
ability to make practical recommendation for impacts on the ground.

Abernethy, K., Ndong Obiang, A.M. 2010. Bushmeat in Gabon.
Technical report to the Government of Gabon. This commissioned
report collates research to date and provides a basis for governance
reform. It has been contributed by Gabon to the regional ministerial
group for biodiversity management (COMIFAC).